Miller's support broad

ATLANTA -- It's easy to be a highly successful politician in Georgia. Just appeal to voters of both sexes, black and white, all income levels and various ideologies.

Zell Miller, Georgia's four-term lieutenant governor, two-term governor and newest senator, showed that kind of appeal in winning a special election Tuesday to the U.S. Senate, an exit poll showed.

Miller did better among women voters than with men, picking up about two-thirds of the female vote. But he still outpolled former Sen. Mack Mattingly with male voters, the poll showed.

Steven Kopec, 31, voting in DeKalb County, said he voted for Miller because ''I liked the job he did as governor.''

Voter News Service, a partnership of The Associated Press and the ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC television networks, conducted the survey of about 1,200 voters as they left 35 randomly selected polling places around Georgia. The sampling error margin for each result was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for all voters, higher for subgroups.

Miller also beat Mattingly convincingly in all age groups, scoring a 2-to-1 victory among voters under 30, many of whom benefited from the HOPE scholarships Miller originated as governor. His margin was almost as wide in all other age groups.

Mattingly apparently led among white voters, but Miller kept it close and drew well over half his support from whites, who made up three quarters of the electorate. By contrast, Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore drew only about a quarter of the white vote in Georgia. Black voters made up one-fourth of the turnout, and gave Miller their overwhelming support.

Miller ran about even with Mattingly among voters who said their incomes were $75,000 a year or more, while those in that range strongly supported George W. Bush in the presidential contest.